Bedford community grapples with balancing growth and preservation

Bedford community grapples with balancing growth and preservation

As rain pelted down and wind howled through the trees, a storm of a different kind was brewing inside Bedford Park Public School.

The fledgling Bedford-Wanless Ratepayers Association had convened its first major meeting to talk about how the neighbourhood, at Yonge and Lawrence, might build a new community centre. It was meant to be a brainstorming session — throwing “mud at the wall,” so to speak, about what it could look like.

But there was another burning issue, one that had mobilized unhappy neighbours to organize, hire high-priced lawyers and produce alternative architectural renderings, as the property owner pruned its plans to keep the peace.

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It had become, in other words, like so many other development battles in Toronto, home to the competing forces of building up neighbourhoods while preserving them at the same time. Residents become versed in the language of grade separations and the cast of shadows, developers go back to the drawing board, as councillors negotiate the space in between, aware that Toronto is densifying, whether we like it or not, and that a provincial tribunal can overturn any decision.

In the Bedford Park example, the dispute centres on 100 Ranleigh Ave., where a United Church used to stand and a seniors residence will take its place.

Many in the area support the venture, arguing it enables residents to live out their golden years in the place they have always called home.

The ratepayers association set out to convince the church to move its plans across the street, to Toronto District School Board land, and build a seniors home and community centre combo that would fill two local needs.

But the United Church wanted to move on, after years of planning and revisions.

“The only thing that is fixed about change is that it keeps on coming,” Barbara White, the reverend at Bedford Park United Church, told North York Community Council this week before it approved the church’s proposal. She used the phrase to describe the “evolution” of church property, but it aptly captures life in a big, growing city.

It’s one of the reasons why Toronto East York Community Council adopted new rules this week for Queen Street East, which has been the scene of intense development battles of late.

The changes are in response to growing anxiety among Beach residents who felt they did not have the power to control how their beloved area grows. The rules cap heights at six storeys in some parts of the Beach, protecting the small-town feel on the commercial strip and demanding that new buildings have an angular plane set back, like a “wedding cake.”

The old limit of four storeys was no longer being followed by developers, local Councillor Mary-Margaret McMahon argued, and the area needed a new regime that would stand up to appeals.

“These guidelines will ensure Queen Street is safe from the kind of development that is threatening the area,” she told her colleagues on Tuesday.

The changes were based on community consultation, but one group raised loud objections, insisting the rules don’t go far enough. “I have lost some political capital and probably some votes in this process,” Ms. McMahon said.

I have lost some political capital and probably some votes in this process

“But that’s not what guides my actions … I do things because they are the right thing to do, period.”

Indeed, community planning can be messy. It’s often impossible to make everyone happy.

Back on Ranleigh, residents are afraid of the implications a four-storey building amid single-family homes will have for their tree-lined street, even if they support housing for seniors.

“From a neighbour’s perspective, it’s a nightmare. It’s nine balconies staring into my backyard,” said Tasha Osborne, a health-care administrator and member of the ratepayers association. Others, such as Andrew Sclater, a banker and father of two, believes people living beside an old church are “fooling themselves” if they don’t think some kind of development is on the horizon.

The seniors residence was originally slated to be five storeys, but the church knocked off a floor, got rid of a nursery school to appease traffic concerns and added balcony plants and fritted glass to increase privacy. At the eleventh hour, it agreed to one more concession for a setback of the west side yard.

“I’ve been dreading this day for two years,” Councillor Jaye Robinson said this week at the North York Community Council. “This is my neighbourhood. My son’s best friend lives on Ranleigh and they are opposed to this development.” But there is “a lot of support for the initiative” and she won’t risk losing all the modifications that have improved the final design in a battle at the Ontario Municipal Board. She is relying on city staff, who say the property does not set a precedent. “I think we should count our blessings that this is the church developing this property, and not a developer,” said Ms. Robinson.

Hugh Mansfield, president of the Bedford-Wanless Ratepayers Association, maintains that allowing a building of this scale is “dangerous” for the neighbourhood. The group has not ruled out taking the matter to the OMB, although Mr. Mansfield notes people will be realistic about their chances. He pointed to comments made by Councillor David Shiner at the community council meeting, who suggested the reason people were supportive of the proposal was because it filled a need for seniors housing, not because the actual building fit into the fabric of the neighbourhood.

“If these things continue across the city, what are you going to end up with?” said Mr. Mansfield, who stressed he understands the need for retirement housing. He said communities have to do better at collectively finding appropriate outcomes for major developments, and put some blame on an “antiquated” planning process.

As for a new community centre for Bedford Park, Mr. Mansfield said locals are “very gung ho” about a project he believes can get built by creating a not-for-profit corporation that buys land from the school board in exchange for long term lease backs. At the community meeting the night of Hurricane Sandy, skepticism was in the air.

One woman said there already is space for community groups; another said perhaps other priorities should come ahead of a community centre. And so begins one more chapter in a growing city.

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